EUREKA -- Phoenix Triton King pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from allegations that he shot two men with a crossbow Sept. 8 on the Samoa Peninsula.

The 20-year-old from Lake County appeared in court clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses with his hair neatly parted. He showed no emotion and hardly spoke during the brief court appearance, during which Eureka attorney Greg Elvine-Kreis was appointed to represent him.

King made his initial court appearance in the case on Sept. 11, but delayed entering a plea to allow his family time to hire a private attorney. Ultimately, it did not have enough money, King informed the court Thursday.

King and his alleged accomplice, 16-year-old Rosalie Adams, also of Lake County, were arrested Sept. 9 -- a day after a multi-agency manhunt on the Samoa Peninsula began when police were called to the area on reports of a man suffering from arrow wounds on State Route 255. When police arrived, they found another victim -- 44-year-old James John James -- about a tenth of a mile from the road in a densely wooded area, dead from a single arrow wound to the face.

The surviving victim -- 41-year-old Matthew Blaine Lewis - was treated and released at a local hospital for arrow wounds to the head, hip and leg.

Adams has also pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, and is due back in Humboldt County Superior Court next month for a hearing that will help determine if she will be tried as an adult or as a juvenile.

According to prosecutors, King and Adams had traveled to Humboldt County a couple of weeks prior to the shootings and set up camp in one of the coastal spruce forests along the Samoa dunes -- an area that is frequented by homeless campers.

Police say the pair believed Lewis and James -- who were also homeless and living in the area -- had stolen something from their camp, and confronted the two men with crossbows they'd recently purchased in Eureka. Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Elan Firpo said evidence in the case indicates it was King who shot the fatal arrow at James, and that both suspects shot arrows at Lewis.

In a recent phone interview, Renie Falor of Eureka said she met King during the 2009-2010 school year while she was working as a speech pathologist in Lake County and King was attending William C. Carl? High School, a continuation school.

Falor said she and King had both volunteered to help out with a dinner folks from the school district were serving to a service organization that had laid sod at one of the district's schools.

King stood out from his peers, Falor said, striking her as someone who was charming and kind, if a bit shy. Falor said she was impressed as King told her how his family had decided the continuation school was the best fit for him, explaining he felt it offered him the opportunity for independent study tightly focused research.

"He had such a lively interest in so many things -- he was just a really charming, young guy," Falor recalled, adding that she then ran into King a couple of times around town, and he would always stop to talk to her.

One time, Falor recalled, King told her that he was working with a program called "Odyssey of the Mind," which holds regional academic competitions in which students offer 30-minute multi-media presentations on specific topics. King, Falor said, got a group of students together to compete from his high school and recruited Falor to volunteer as a judge at the competition.

When Falor left Lake County to return to Eureka, where her mother lives, she said she thought King would attend college and maybe follow in the footsteps of his grandparents, whom she said are both college professors.

"He just had a real lively mind and a strong curiosity," she said, her voice trailing off slightly.

Lake County, Falor said, is a strange place. She commented on the high unemployment rate and socio-economic challenges, and how scared she felt for some of the children there.

"It's all very strange," Falor said. "I opened up the newspaper and just said, 'Oh my God, I know this kid,' and I just never, ever expected to run into him in this kind of situation. Of all the kids I met in Clearlake, he was the one I would least expect to wind up in a situation like this."

Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThadeusGreensn.